Hi Everybody,
Wow. Has it really been October since we last wrote something here? Our apologies to all you who have been regulars to this website, and are suffering from dust mite bites as the cobwebs were building around here.
We will finish writing about our French trip (still have two days to go), but in the meantime, we wanted to talk about our most recent Christmas excursion. We will warn you now, past blog entries are like short post-it notes compared to this entry. If you haven’t got much time on your hands, print this, and take with you for some bedtime reading. We ensure the soundest sleep you will ever get. 
For all that we had managed to talk to over the phone during the few months before December, you were given a little white lie, being told that we had plans to enjoy a week in the Lake district for our Christmas.
The truth was we had planned to travel a little further than that, and make a surprise return home.
After returning from Paris, with its wonderful clear blue skies and warm temperatures, we both got extremely homesick. The Sunday after we arrived back, we were sitting in one of the local restaurants after going to the gym, and both expressed our want to go back home. Keith, being the level head when it comes to all things financial, up till now has always said that we couldn’t do it; it would cost too much, and be too much of a strain on the wallet. But the desire to see family and friends got the better of him, and he agreed to us looking into flying back to Brisbane.
Kathleen, being one to never let a golden opportunity pass, jumped on that, and the next day was doing circuits of the Manchester travel agents, pitting them against each other, to see which would give her the best deal.
We ended up getting for the both of us return flights to Brisbane on Emirates airlines for an excellent price, which we were able to pay off over the months leading to the trip. The price was enough to prevent us doing any sort of major travel during that time, but not enough to prevent us from paying for essentials like rent, food, and the occasional dinner/movie outing.
The biggest problem we had with this trip was that we wanted it to be a surprise, so we couldn’t tell anyone the truth about what we were doing. We made sure we had a planned out story to tell all who asked, but it wasn’t easy. Keith, being a bit of a goodie two shoes sometimes, did find it a bit troublesome telling his folks the little white lies, but took one for the team.
Though, as the departure date loomed closer, we realised we were going to have to tell someone that we were coming. The reasons were that, we were going to be extremely jet-lagged when we arrived, and would need someone to be there to help us out; we needed to drive a lot while we were back home, and why pay for a rental car if we had our own car; and lastly, we wanted to visit friends up north in Rockhampton, and couldn’t just appear on their doorstep. So, after much consideration, we decided we had to tell our Friends in Rocky, so they would be prepared for the visit. We also felt that it was best to let our great friend Nic should know as well. Nic along with his lovely wife, Jo, has been too kind in looking after Keith’s car during our time in the UK. Since they had the car, Nic got shortlisted as the prime candidate for being the secret keeper.
We’d like to say top marks to Nic for keeping quiet about all of this. Not even Jo knew we were coming, only thinking that a parcel was coming from us (a small deception, which we’re sure Jo forgave us for).
The Flight over wasn’t as bad as what we remembered flying over to the UK (probably because we stayed with a single airline this time, instead of changing partway), with us only making two stops, in Dubai, and in Bangkok.
Dubai is quite an impressive sight. To sum it up in a very simple way, if you grabbed the CBD of any major city, Skyscrapers and all, plonk it down in the middle of a desert next to the sea, and you get Dubai. Unfortunately, Its got a small pollution problem, something we could see as we landed, and they are also rather lax in their smoking policies, as we had to walk through areas of thick cigarette smoke in sections of the Dubai Emirates Terminal. The Terminal was going through some construction work, so when we got off the plane, we were transported in buses for almost 20 minutes, passing the entire terminal to the other end, only to be informed that we had to get back to the gate at the other end of the terminal, in order to get on our plane. Once we did get to the gate, we were then put on buses, and taken to our plane, THE PLANE THAT HAPPENED TO BE PARKED NEXT TO THE ONE WE JUST GOT OFF!
We understand they have to do that sort of thing for security reasons, though it did make Keith laugh in disbelief as we pulled up at the plane.
The combination of the pollution and the cigarette smoke played havoc with Kathleen’s Asthma, and didn’t help Keith out much either. While we would have loved to have more time to explore Dubai, we were rather happy to get out of there.
Our other plane
Edge of Dubai
Our stop at Bangkok was just a fuel-up and staff transfer, but still we had to get off the plane for about 30 minutes. Since it was so short a time, we couldn’t go anywhere other than to make a quick pit-stop, and then get back on.
We’d like to take this opportunity to comment on Emirates as an Airline. We were told by a good Friend of ours that we shouldn’t fly with them, and to roughly quote her “We should give our luggage a hug, take pictures, then grow cold and distant with them, as when Emirates gets a hold of the bags, you will never see them again”. While we truly respect her opinion, we had already booked it, and felt we could at least be prepared for the lost of our luggage. Thankfully, Emirates didn’t lose our luggage for the trip over.
Another plus for Emirates was the seating. Keith was extremely pleased with them as there was legroom, enough for his long legs. Also each seat had a entertainment unit built into the headrest, so you can watch movies or play games on it. Depending on the age of the plane, you can have the option of watching from a set of movies playing automatically, or, if its a younger plane, you can choose what you want to watch, when you want.
The service was quite good too, with the Hosts giving us meals almost every 4 hours. You never go hungry on one of these flights. Though I could say the hosts could be a little bit more friendly and understanding. Considering we are on a plane for up to 8 hours at a time, I would have thought they would understand that we would be rather thirsty quite regularly, as the air in the plane can dry you out. It started getting to a point where I think the Hosts were getting tired of us asking for drinks. Perhaps they had the mindset that we were in cattle-class so we shouldn’t be pushing for too much, we should be happy with what we get. Not saying they were rude or anything, but I could tell they weren’t exactly pleased to cater to our wants.
Sunrise over Australia
Over QLD somewhere
We finally arrived in Brisbane at about 6:30 in the Friday morning. Prior to the flight, we had organised with Nic to pick us up from the Airport (Which we were extremely grateful for), from which we would head to Nic and Jo’s home, to surprise Jo. Jo was at the time waiting at home, expecting a courier to deliver ’our package’, while thinking Nic had just gone to work early. How surprised she was to have him come back home, with us in tow.
In fact, we have some Piccies of how surprised she was.
Surprise!
hehehe
Another great thing about us coming back to Brisbane was that we finally got to meet David, Nic and Jo’s baby boy, who was born early February while we were in the UK. Please find attached some pics of us getting acquainted.
Keith with Davie
Keith playing with David
We did have plans to go visit Keith’s Mum and Dad shortly after Lunchtime, and then have a get together with some of our close friends in the evening. Unfortunately, our friends weren’t able to come, mainly due to the fact they can get rather busy, and thought it was just a gathering to collect presents from us, and didn’t know we would be there. That was no matter, for Jet-lag decided to kick in, and we crashed until about 5pm. By Nic was back from having a half day at work, and was able to drive us over to Keith’s Mum and Dad’s place. Now, Nic had given Mum the red herring of they were coming round to give them some gifts we had put in the fictitious package. When we arrived at Mum and Dads, Keith’s Mum and sister Michelle (who was over at the time) was more interested in seeing little David, and came out to the car to see him. It couldn’t have worked better, as when Mum looked through the window to see Davie, she saw us both as well, smiling and waving. We surprised both Mum and Mish so much, they were almost in tears.
We went inside, getting to shock Keith’s Dad(Kathleen says she’s never seen Keith’s Dad look so confused), and Mum rang Keith’s sister and Brother to come over, so we could surprise them too. Claire, we would agree, was the best, doing a classic double-take when seeing us, and almost knocking over a glass cabinet, jumping up and down with surprise. Vince was more subdued, having sort of sussed that we might have been there.
After having a quick catchup with everyone, we had to head back to Nic and Jo’s place, so we could get a good nights sleep.
Saturday, we did a bit of driving around, checking out old haunts, and marvelling at how much some areas of Brisbane had changed (the work on the bypass tunnels was spectacular). We also dropped by the Taekwondo grading, and caught up with some old friends. It was so good to see them all, and made us determined to start going again when we finally came back to Australia.
We also had to do a bit of hunting for some decent Sunglasses for Kathleen, having misplaced hers somewhere between back in the UK, and arriving in Brisbane (Don’t worry, people, it turns out the Sunglasses were accidentally left behind in the UK, under a chair in our study where we packed). After finding a pair that worked, we headed to Kathleen’s Mum’s place to surprise her. On our way we stopped at Gympie to pick up two crabs and a whole lot of prawns have with Kathleen’s Mum for Dinner.
It was quite dark by the time we got to Kathleen’s Mum’s place, which is a bit of a blessing it help in concealing our arrival. Kathleen’s Mum saw the car pull up outside, but because it was dark, thought it was the Avon lady dropping around. While Keith parked the car and started unpacking the car, Kathleen snuck up to the front door and surprise her Mum. Keith could hear her exclamation from the road!
Once unpacked, we all enjoyed the prawns and crab for dinner, got to talk about everything that’s been happening, and once it was quite late, when off to bed.
On the Sunday, we had to head up north to see Keith’s old friend, Jason, and his family. We didn’t get away until just before Midday, leaving us with a good 5 hours of driving. It was so good to see the Queensland countryside, even more so as it had just been raining after a very long drought, and everything was looking so green. On the way we made a few stops, one being at Mamminos Macadamia Ice-cream, who make quite a wonderful range, our favourite being the Jaffa flavoured ice-cream. YUM.
We arrived at the Bell’s place just before 6pm. They were expecting us, so no surprise here (we didn’t want to risk us travelling all that way for them not to be at home). The last time we had been able to see the Bells was Keith’s School reunion, and Jason and Chrissy had only one little baby girl, Laura. That was quite a while ago, Laura being a good 3 years old, and now there was another, Little Katelyn, who came into the scene early January after we arrived in the UK.
We had such a wonderful time with Jason and Chrissy, having fun with the girls, catching up, and playing pool.
On the Monday, after spending the morning enjoying Jason’s company and raiding his computer of stuff, we headed over to see Kathleen’s friends, Sandra and Theo, who lived over in Emu park. On our way we took the time to take some pictures of a Crocodile farm, just for Kathleen’s UK school kids (considering the worst they usually get to see is Badgers).
Sandra and Theo also knew we were coming, for the same reason we told Jason and Chrissy. It was a lot of fun seeing Sandra and Theo, and like everyone else, we so look forward to seeing everyone again when we finally get back to Brisbane.
Local croc farm
We travelled back to Brisbane on the Tuesday, stopping off at Mamminos, Kathleen’s Mum again, and Mon Repos Turtle Rookery out near Bundaberg. It was a long trip, with us arriving back at Nic and Jo’s after dark.
We finally got to surprise the rest of our friends, Marshall and Alison, and Nicole and Stuart, mainly through subterfuge, and downright lies about reasons for visits. Thanks again Nic for your help. We still can’t get over the look on Stuarts face (I do believe its the first time he has been speechless).
The rest of our time back home was spent travelling around, revisiting places we use to haunt, and seeing old friends and family. We regularly visited the lovely Pizza and pasta restaurant, Tomato Brothers, getting re-acquainted with the Owner/chef and his delightful wares.
Another place we planned to visit while back in Brisbane was the Old Church up on Mount Tambourine, where we plan on being married. We had plans to travelled up with Nic and Jo, but due to a bit of mucking around on our part, we had to arrange to meet them up there. All was well, we had a great picnic lunch near Para-glider takeoff, and then checked out the Church.
It was as beautiful as we remember it, though Keith thinks that we may have to invest in some mosquito coils, depending on how wet it has been over the time before the wedding.
Please find attached some piccies of the church and reception.
The front of the church
out the side
Inside the reception
After the Church we stopped at the Polish Place B&B, so enjoy a couple of their wonderful Polish Hot Chocolates, and feed sugar to the local Rosellas. We had so much fun with these little birds last time we stayed at the B&B, they just can’t get enough of sugar, honey, or anything sweet. We know its not a good thing to encourage them to have the sugar, but considering there had been a drought over the past 6 years, we didn’t think it would hurt too much.
The Polish place
One of the birds
SUGAR!
Wadayoulookinat?
I shall call him… MINI-ME.
Another rather memorable experience we had was taking Keith’s Niece, Lc, with us to visit Maria. Maria is in charge of the reptile section of the Stafford Pet superstore, not purely for her friendly temperament, but also for her extensive experience with a wide range of reptiles, most of which she owns.
We were invited around to Maria’s place to see her vast collection of snakes and lizards, after giving her a thank-you gift for being the Saviour of our friends who are currently looking after Kathleen’s snakes.
We all had quite a lot of fun, Lc included. Please find attached some piccies. (for those with weak constitutions, just quickly scroll to the next part).
Nice, slithery
Lc playing with the snake
How cute
Lc with a lizard
We also took Lc to Wet and Wild world, in which we all had a lot of fun too. Writing all this, Keith has realised he has two, soon to be three, other niece and nephews to take to the various theme parks. Hmmm. Lets hope we win the lottery or something
We had a wonderful Christmas, having Breakfast over at Nic and Jo’s (nice crispy bacon), Lunch at Mum and Dads with the family, and then Dinner at Kathleen’s Aunts place, with Kathleen’s relatives. We had a wonderful time, despite all the driving around.
Speaking of driving, Keith was debating on putting together a map of where we had been during this time, and realised, you all would be asleep by now after going through this thesis. Overall we must have travelled over 3000 km. To say the least, when we arrived in Brisbane, Keith was really looking forward to driving his car, when we left, the novelty had worn off.
The flight back was fine, though Keith suffered from some severe pains in his knees, and it didn’t help that he wasn’t able to get up regularly to stretch his legs. It took almost 4 days for it to pass, making stairs a real pain literally.
Pic flying back
another shot
More recent events, Kathleen is loving her new job as a Teaching Assistant, and with Australia day, Kathleen thought it would be great to do something Aussie-ish, so we decided to make Lamingtons. By the way, all Aussies know Australia day is on the 26th, and this year we had the holiday on the 28th. Try telling everyone here that, when all their calenders tell them Australia Day is the 28th.
No matter.
Now, making Lamingtons over in Australia is easy with some very easy choices, either buy the Lamingtons outright, that way you know it will be right first time, or you can grab a plain sponge cake, slice it up, choc coat it, cover in coconut sprinkles and hey presto, LAMINGTONS.
Over here, no Lamingtons to buy. Ok, go to plan b. Hmmm, they don’t sell plain Sponge cakes. Hmmm, the only choice we have is Sponge cake mix. Goodie.
So, Keith took the time to bake the sponge cake, and after a fair amount of trial and error, we managed to create a whole batch of Lamingtons. We think we did alright. We were so proud of our creations, here’s the pictures.
Our lamingtons. You can see our learning process, from the dodgy to the almost acceptable.
The pick of the litter
An another note, we had some late cold snaps here recently, causing some hail and snow to fall in the area. We woke the other morning to find the cars covered in the stuff.
Chilly
Snow or small hail?
We would like you all to know that the Daffodils are starting to flower, looking very lovely, and Fred and Jo (the local swans) are nesting. We think we will call the newbies Bob.
We shall end with letting everyone know that we have already booked our flights back home for good, and so look forward to seeing you all again.
This Christmas Trip definitely felt too short, and we hope to spend more time with everyone once we are back.
Until next time, Loving yous all,
Kathleen and Keith
